Chillicothe, Ohio - DePauw battled back from an 8-4 deficit in the ninth, but 13th-ranked Wittenberg plated one in the bottom of the frame for the walk-off win in a North Coast Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament elimination game. The Tigers finished the regular season at 28-13 and await word of an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III Championship. Wittenberg improved to 31-10 and faces Denison tomorrow, needing to win two to claim the tournament title.
DePauw's
Zach O'Connell drew a one-out walk in the top of the ninth, moved to second on a wild pitch and to third on
Louis Florida's single. After
Cuinn Morrow walked to load the bases,
Nolan Osterling drove in two with a double down the left field line. Pinch-hitter
Connor Osborne's groundout to second plated Morrow and
Tyler Walkey delivered the game-tying single which scored pinch-runner
Jack Murray.
Wittenberg's Quintin Applegate singled with one out in the ninth before Corbin Marshall doubled down the left field line, scoring Applegate with the game-winning run.
Wittenberg jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second with Tommy Chilicki leading off with a single and moving to second on Applegate's base hit. Marshall's single scored Chilicki and Daniel Gladden followed with a double that brought home Applegate. Charlie Marando's grounder brought home Marshall and Alex Nemunaitis singled to left with Gladden scoring.
DePauw responded in the third as
Max Bond singled with one out and scored on
Grady Johnson's triple. O'Connell's grounder to short drove in Johnson and cut the Wittenberg lead to 4-2.
Chilicki doubled to start the third and came home on Marshall's one-out double to left center.
In the fifth, DePauw's
Aidan Howard doubled with one out and move to third when Bond reached on a dropped third strike. After Bond stole second and Johnson walked, O'Connell lifted a sacrifice fly that scored Howard and trimmed the deficit to 5-3.
James MacAuley and Marando singled to start the Wittenberg sixth and Nemunaitis advanced both with a bunt. Landon Turner's sacrifice fly scored MacAuley and Xander Rodriguez followed with a two-run homer to make it 8-3.
Howard led off the DePauw seventh with a solo homer to cut the Wittenberg lead to 8-4. The Tigers left two runners on in both the seventh and eighth innings setting up the ninth-inning comeback.
Howard, Bond, Florida and Osterling each had two of DePauw's 12 hits. Marshall had four of Wittenberg's 17 hits with Applegate adding three. Nemunaitis, Chilicki and MacAuley had two each.
Nate Tenzca dropped to 3-5, while Zach Rust improved to 1-3.Â
